Winner

Trap Peter Mathers

Dustjacket synopsis:
"Trap (1966) won the Miles Franklin Literary Award when it was published. Its comic and satiric elements and use of several narrative voices provide revealing interpretations of cross-cultural relations, bureaucracy and politics in Australia."

First Paragraph

The rooster was crowing, at two in the afternoon, and the cicadas had started up again after their lunchtime quiet.

So Trap is definitely to move north. A lot of good the trip will do him -- and Naraki Misson. His so-called pilgrimage will become a holiday or a catastrophe. He is quite unable to co-operate with people. He is still the lone man.

Naraki, five thousand square miles, is to be developed by the Steelcyl -- Astrominerals -- Mayor Investments -- Gospel Enterprises -- Holy Spirit Trust -- Megopolis consortium. They have undertaken to build a deep-sea port, two hundred miles of railway, a dam and a town to house a population of a thousand plus. The ore is almost on the surface and Japanese mills will take every ton. Naraki has slept for sixty years. The glorious awakening is at hand. Useful habits and trades will be acquired by its inhabitants -- provided Trap and his current mockery, fair shares! -- be kept out.

The inhabitants are alleged to feel betrayed, that the Church and government have sold them out. Of course this is nonsense. The consortium will make a great deal of money but this can only be for the common good.

From the Sydney University Press hard back edition, 2003.

This page and its contents are copyright © 2006 by Perry Middlemiss, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Last modified: March 6, 2006.